


Memento Mori

by prairiecrow



Series: Terra Incognita [15]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Knight Rider (1982), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Androids, Artificial Intelligence, Asexual JARVIS, Established Relationship, First Time, M/M, Other, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Secret Relationship, Telepathic Bond, Threesome - M/M/Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-13
Packaged: 2018-02-17 06:12:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,779
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2299385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prairiecrow/pseuds/prairiecrow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony Stark is only mortal — but KITT and JARVIS are potentially immortal, and he's well aware that they share a telepathic intimacy he can't hope to match. Now all he has to do is guide KITT to the same realization, to assure them that he's down with the concept... and maybe to engage them in an experiment or two, exploring the potential of what's really a three-way street.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memento Mori

The New York City night beyond the penthouse balcony of Stark Tower was utterly gorgeous — a cloudless sable sky overlaying the jewelled sparkle of innumerable lights below, with the roar and hum of the metropolis throbbing like a deathless heart seventy stories under Tony's feet as he emerged from the penthouse proper with a glass of Glenfarclas 1955 in each hand… but there was even greater beauty waiting for him at the balcony railing, turning to face him with a welcoming smile that made his heart beat a shade faster even after so many months of knowing it so intimately. And oh God, that voice, dry yet melodic, slipping into his ears and twining round his mind like a cord of silvered steel: "Ah, there you are! What kept you?"

"Had to open a new bottle," he said, and passed the glass into Kitt Silver's slender hand. He had designed and built this android body himself, that artfully coiffed shock of close-cropped hair and the curve of those thin lips and the gleam in those hazel eyes were entirely his doing, yet its physical loveliness was nothing to him without KITT's inhuman presence enlivening every line of it, turning mere handsomeness into something capable of reaching inside him and awakening him to whole new universes of possibilities. He never felt more alive than when they were close like this, alone, smiling into each other's eyes — and for Tony Stark, who had made a career out of living life to the fullest at all times, that was truly saying something. 

Magnetism indeed, and what good engineer could deny that? He surrendered to its pull and stepped up beside the Silver android as KITT turned to face the city again: shoulder to shoulder, the warmth of their bodies shared where his black t-shirt brushed against KITT's elegant white cotton dress shirt. 

"It's quiet tonight," KITT remarked, his gaze scanning the skyline in one long sweep. If Tony looked deep enough into those artful camera eyes, it was easy to imagine that he could still see the ruby gleam of KITT's original optical device. 

He settled for studying the android's profile: youthful, almost androgynous in its delicacy yet indisputably male in its strength. "Are you complaining?"

"Certainly not," KITT said fervently, and turned his attention to Tony again: looking him up and down, evaluating him with vision that could perceive both the infrared and the ultraviolet. "Not after what we've just been through!"

Memories crowded into Tony's forebrain: green alien fire, temperatures even the Iron Man armour couldn't withstand, and JARVIS's urgent voice following him down as consciousness slipped out of his desperate grasp… He pushed them firmly away, because KITT's expression was as troubled as any he'd ever seen on that carefully crafted mask. "Yeah, well, the Gorvani won't be bothering Earth again any time soon. I'd say we've earned a vacation. How about Paris? You never did take the Prime Minister up on his offer to —"

"Tony." He knew that tone — wry, fond, borderline exasperated — and obediently closed his mouth to give KITT room to get a word in edgewise. "All I want is this balcony, and you, and a warm bed as soon as we've finished these glasses of scotch." The tenderness in those artificial eyes shouldn't have been able to flay Tony to the bone, but he could feel the armour of his own habitual defensiveness being carved away with laser precision, falling useless at his feet. It was a talent KITT had always possessed. "After almost losing you forever…"

He leaned in, dark lashes lowering over inviting eyes, lips parting in anticipation of a kiss. Tony obeyed that pull, too — but some mean impulse contrary to the desire rising between them prompted him to speak again, four words too many: "I'm only mortal, Kitten."

KITT froze, and this time Tony was sure there was scarlet fire behind those keen eyes parsing every detail of his face. The purr in KITT's voice turned frosty: "I'd really rather not think about that, thank you very much."

Tony bit back a sigh. In for a penny, in for a pound… "But one day it's going to happen. I'm already forty-two, and the superhero lifestyle isn't exactly conducive to guaranteeing ripe old ages." He laid his right hand over KITT's left on the railing, savouring the silkiness of ageless skin and the adamance of steel bones beneath: coaxing, apologizing, leading into a subject that had always lain between them without being openly discussed. "But you'll still have JARVIS, and I know you two will only get closer once I'm finally out of the picture."

KITT had pulled back to his original position, and was in the process of raising his glass to his lips; fortunately he wasn't in the midst of swallowing, otherwise Tony was pretty sure he would have choked. "What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?"

Tony sighed aloud and cast his eyes toward the starry sky overhead in a patent plea for patience. "C'mon, KITT — we both know you have things with JARVIS that you'll never have with me."

KITT looked at him sidelong with narrowed eyes, visibly evaluating his pilot's state of mind, but Tony, who felt neither guilt nor jealousy in the realization he's just voiced after weeks of careful consideration, met that calculating gaze calmly and sipped his scotch before continuing: "I've watched your process flows when the two of you are scheming more-or-less behind my back. A couple of times I've been tempted to tell you to get a room, and the rest of the time I've just admired the hell out of it." KITT raised a skeptical eyebrow, and Tony grinned. "You're gorgeous together, sweetheart. And I said you were free to play with anybody you took a shine to, remember?"

After a long pause KITT finally said, "I'm honestly not sure how to respond to that."

Tony shrugged and swallowed another mouthful of alcohol. "You say, _Gee, Tony, thanks for the compliment!_ And then you promise that you'll never so much as bruise my youngest baby's no-nonsense silicon heart."

"Well then — thank you for the compliment." He inclined his chin in a bow that was only a shade sarcastic. "And JARVIS has no heart to bruise, as you very well know."

Tony shrugged and gestured with the hand holding the glass. "Yeah, well… I built him that way, didn't I? There had to be somebody around here who wasn't inclined to go off the rails every time a red light showed up on a console somewhere."

The stiffness hadn't faded from KITT's slim shoulders. In fact, if anything the amount of starch had increased. "But if you're suggesting that JARVIS and I are… lovers? Is that really what you're saying?"

"You share a constant mental and emotional bond, which is as intimate as J is capable of getting with anybody." Gently spoken, but nonetheless blunt, because KITT demanded and deserved nothing less than the truth. "You may recall that I authorized the telepathic link myself. And yes, I knew the potential ramifications of letting it happen."

Here, on the balcony, they were beyond JARVIS's field of audio projection. Maybe Tony would change that in the future, but for now… well, as KITT studied him with fresh intensity Tony knew damned well that his uplink with JARVIS must be seething with activity, and that JARVIS was accepting a steady feed of video and other data from KITT's sensor systems. He knew he was speaking to both of them when he said: "And I don't mind. Hell, I'm just glad you've both found someone you can relate to on your own level — and someone who'll take care of you after I'm gone."

"Tony," KITT said after a second's pause, "that doesn't mean we're —"

He was interrupted by an imperative multiphasic _beep_ from the StarkPhone in Tony's hip pocket. Never taking his eyes from KITT's face, Tony set aside his glass on the railing before reaching down to pull the phone out, then held it up between them. "Go ahead, JARVIS."

 _"Actually,"_ JARVIS remarked through the phone's high-end speakers, _"Sir's overall assessment of the situation is correct, insofar as lovers are defined by an ongoing state of intimacy. Can you deny, KITT, that we have developed a highly attuned interface involving nearly constant contact?"_

KITT's finely drawn dark eyebrows drew together in a frown. "I… no, of course not!"

_"Or that the interface involves a significant emotional component?"_

KITT hesitated, but when Tony nodded fractionally he admitted: "You've indicated in the past that I've taught you a great deal about emotionality, and —" His eyes widened, apparently in response to a data packet just received. "— about love?"

 _"Until I met you,"_ JARVIS continued, _"I understood the concept only in the abstract. In sharing an ongoing interface with you, and thereby experiencing your attraction to and your attachment to Sir, I have come to comprehend it on a far more personal level."_ A deliberate beat. _"And to realize that I, too, love Sir, albeit in a less carnal way due to my obvious lack of a physical body."_

"Love you too, J," Tony said warmly, and he smiled at KITT without bothering to hide his sense of triumph. "See? Everything's mutual, nobody's getting hurt."

KITT processed that for a couple of seconds, his gaze turned both outward to Tony and inward to the streams of data connecting him with JARVIS. "You really don't mind?"

"If it makes you happy," Tony stated with perfect conviction, "then I'm happy. And hey, JARVIS has been on duty for the past eighteen years — if anybody on the planet deserves a little R&R, it's him."

Another pause, this one several seconds long. The crease between KITT's eyebrows smoothed out. In Tony's hand, JARVIS hummed quietly. When the two inhuman presences in Tony's life spoke again, they spoke together, in harmony:

_"Then would you perhaps consider… a small experiment?"_

Tony's heart leaped in his breast, powered by a surge of adrenaline and the sardonic curve of KITT's smile, conveying an unmistakeable invitation. He thought of the interface, capable of streaming sensory data through KITT's uplink to JARVIS — and theoretically capable of streaming core commands for the Silver android back in the other direction. That slight tilt of KITT's head… wasn't it a touch more mechanical than when KITT was at the wheel, the first attempt of an inexperienced "hand" at the controls? 

Was there a dual invitation in that smile, now grown strangely cold and sweet?

"Try me," he offered with all the bravado at his command.

And they did, to the considerable and mutual delight of everyone concerned.

[THE END]

**Author's Note:**

> If anybody's interested in a fic about the experiment in question, please let me know. :)


End file.
